A BioBlitz is an event that focuses on finding and identifying as many species as possible in a specific area over a short period of time, and uploading those observations to iNaturalist. This results in a snapshot of an area’s biodiversity. High quality data uploaded to iNaturalist become part of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, an open source database used by scientists and policy makers around the world.

You can learn more about BioBlitzes and iNaturalist on our BioBlitz page, or just check in at our “Basecamp” at Darlin Creek Preserve on the day of our BioBlitz with Capitol Land Trust. We’ll have volunteers going over what makes a good observation, giving demos of iNaturalist, and answering any questions about the project.

Photos courtesy of Nerds for Nature from bioblitzes using iNaturalist at Lake Merritt, Pillar Point, and McLaren Park respectively

We encourage you to focus on good photos/observations while you’re at Darlin Creek Preserve, but if you have internet/data service, you can start uploading your observations in the field, and see as they get validated by other users on iNaturalist and become research-grade. All observations from our BioBlitz (and any others from that day) will be added to a single project, which you can see here, and we’ll send out a report on the data collected!

Download iNaturalist now and join us on April 16th! This event is open to the public, but we appreciate knowing if folks intend to come! You can submit your information and any questions in the form below: